flipper11

What is it with the Plymouth track this season, there has always been good racing there in previous years. I really don't want to see them close (Buxton) but i can't see even there home support lasting with meetings like that. In the 1st half any rider that tried to race ended up in the fence so it meant riders just riding to survive a race rather than racing, that is not what people pay to see.

BobC. I think you will find that Kent suffer more than most because they are the only track (cant think of another) that has to finish heat 15 & have the bikes back in the pits within 2 hours. I doubt any club in the league finishes EVERY match EVERY week within 2 hours. If by running heat 15 the race would finish 1 minute after 8.30 it means at Kent heat 15 could not be run. The meeting against Cradley is a case in point, if Kent were able to have carried on until 8.35pm the meeting would have finished. At Poole do you leave the stadium EVERY week at or before 9.30, i doubt that very much. Hopefully in time the council will grant Kent an extension of maybe 15mins to the planning permission for exceptional circumstances (say ambulance on track) & we can join in with the rest of the leagues & finish every match!

So you are massively experienced at track prep & you no what you are talking about on tracks, yet somehow you manage to compare Ablitt never crashing at Lakeside with him crashing at Kent. Perhaps as an expert you can explain how riding a 250cc bike in 2nd halves at Lakeside can compare to his 1st season on a 500cc bike in the national league at Kent!?

That’s odd I was told this was his 1st year racing a 500cc speedway bike.

It was Connor Dugard in the Speedway Star.

I don't remember Ablitt crashing at Lakeside, but then i don't ever remember him racing there. When did he race at Lakeside?

You forgot the injury to Gilkes, out for 9 weeks with a broken pelvis sustained at Stoke & for what its worth Ablitt out for 23 days with concussion sustained at Swindon. Yes there is a pattern & that is that just about every injury sustained by Kent riders happened away from Central Park.

I totally agree, to go to any match with r/r at No 1 seems suicidal. Like you i thought it was to save money, as i didn't agree with it i asked the management before the match if it was for economy reasons & was assured it was purely that LEN thought we could win using our own riders.

It was my understanding the reserve had to be a 2 point rider or start the season as a 2 point rider. It maybe that a reserve can take part I'm really not sure of the rule but as Kent have both their 2 pointers/reserves on the sidelines they had to borrow one & In fairness to Bailey Fellows he gave it 100%. It just seemed odd that a team can't take their 5th best rider as a reserve. It would mean that if a team were to lose a rider (as happened to Kent) they would still have a chance in the competition. Not sure what you mean by once again biting Kent while penny pinching? When have they penny pinched in an important meeting like that? Just for reference Spooner made his own way up to watch Kent at Stoke while he was injured, I'm sure if he was asked to make his own way up in case he gets a ride at reserve he would not have had a problem doing that.

Yes he really looks the part, can't wait to see him. Unfortunately 1 rider back & now another 2 riders down! Ledwith is out for a few weeks with a broken collar bone & Jenkins is out with a back problem. I just hope Anders was not to badly hurt after his big off at Stoke.

Well done Mr Pipe i enjoyed the day out. People have asked for more for their entrance money & they got it. A good band, bouncy castle for the kids etc etc. Overall i thought the racing was pretty good & with 3 clubs level going into the final heat it couldn't have ended better. Well done to Stoke on your width of a tyre win!. On the minus side. Why can't teams take their 5th best rider as reserve? As happened to Kent last night, Ledwith was taken to hospital in his 1st ride & with a random unattached rider at reserve meant Kent had 3 riders from the off!! With Anders injured in his 2nd ride Kent went into the final with 2 riders!! Despite the tedious journey up there If the final is held at Stoke next year i will be going for sure.

Yes Dan is due back against Cradley, he has done quite a few practice laps in the last week or so, so fingers X everything is go for next Monday. Unfortunately Nathans ban is not up until after next Monday.

Unfortunately I don't think he is. I have heard he is not ready for regular speedway at the moment.

Jenkins rode in a lot of pain after his 1st race fall with his arm swelling to almost twice its usual size and is now confirmed as on the injured list and along with the injured spooner (who maybe came back to soon), gilkes and Ablitt will miss the trip to iow on Thursday. It has been a nightmare start for Kent this season.

Spot on Coldace, the racing was superb. Roll on 1st August. It is worth noting that the negative comments about Jenkins are not coming from Kent supporters.

There is no way Kent supporters would be happy about changing the team, every one of them has been riding they socks off, it just won't happen. I hope the results from hospital are positive for Jenkins and he is not as badly injured as feared.

Morley in for kemp.

Not so sure about group B. Kent are without Kemp so it opens things right up.

My take on your ideas. 1. The top 2 leagues run on different nights so don't clash. Im a NL supporter & have to accept that our no1 is almost always going to sign for a league above, not a problem to me, they miss an occasional match but thats progress, to have a guest replacement keeps the match competitive. 2. Not sure there is a problem with the current r/r rules. Rides taken by 1 rider above & 3 below in the team is fair & spreads the rides out in the team. A team can always have a no 8 rider & replace all the r/r rides with the no 8. Very fair as i see & is not in need of changing. Why give an extra 3 rides to 1 rider, guaranteed 7 rides puts massive pressure on him. 3. Why would you take a rider out of a team & then have him sitting around all season in case a rider is injured/missing. 4. How can you have less teams? Who decides which teams cannot ride this season? There are only 7 teams in the Premier league now, having less teams would mean riding against the same team way to often. If this was the case & it released riders i cannot see any rider being prepared to pay for bikes, mechanic, van etc & sit around all season (on the bench) in case of an injury. What happens if the reserve rider sitting around has a higher average than the injured/missing rider, he won't be able to take his place. What happens if the injured/missing rider is a no1 & the only reserve with bikes sitting doing nothing has a 3 point average, almost a certain loss for that team & hardly worth supporters paying to watch a thrashing. The Prem league has 7 teams, if each team had 3 riders in reserve (on the bench) thats 21 riders sitting at home all season with bikes, van etc waiting for a chance of a team replacement ride!! Not practical at all & there would never be that many riders available. I don't know what goes on in Poland & Sweden with the replacement rules, its bad enough trying to understand the British ones.

Injuries etc are part & parcel of speedway. I can't think of anything worse than an uncompetitive meeting when riders are missing, so for me i can't see past having guests to fill in for missing riders. I would be very interested to see some someone come up with some fair & practical alternatives rather than the usual moaning about the use of guests or 'its up to the promoters/bspa to find a solution'.

Sidney. Not sure if you no, but if you go on the Warriors web site there is a code for discount off transport to the iow.

It is difficult to work out gate at CP, but at an average home meeting there must be around 120 people standing between 3rd & 1st bends. There are also a lot of people who prefer to stand between the top & bottom tiers of seats & several in the top bars. The stand has 2000 odd seats so if there were 600 people sitting down it will still not look like many people. For sure a typical bank holiday will have over 1000.

A trophy at last! Have to say the NT league was a great success with close matches between all teams home and away. Kents injury list grows however, Jenkins now out with a fractured coccyx picked up against Mildenhall, which explains his lack of points on the IOW a few days later.

Andrews has always been popular with KK fans and his never say die performance a couple of weeks ago reinforced that. Jordan also misses next weeks match against Leicester, i would guess Len/Chris will see how Richard goes against IOW before committing to him or as you say Coles or Edwards in the Leicester match.

Think it is Richard Andrews for Jordan, r/r for Alex & Clouting for Gilkes.